Polly Bergen

Born Nellie Paulina Burgin on July 14, 1930 in Knoxville, TN, she was the daughter of construction engineer William Burgin and his wife, Lucy. The family, which included Bergen's sister Barbara, moved to Los Angeles in the 1940s, where Bergen began her singing career with stints on the radio and with local bands. Producer Hal B. Wallis got wind of her while she was attending Compton Junior College, and signed her to a contract at Paramount Studios. After making her debut as a saloon singer in the Western "Across the Rio Grande" (1949), she was cast as the pretty and likable - if thoroughly colorless female lead - in several action pictures and comedies. Three turns opposite then box-office c... Continue Bio >>